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Monday, March 07, 2016

'It appears that no one cares': REPORT SLAMS L.A. COUNTY CENTRAL JUVENILE HALL FOR FILTHY CONDITIONS AND POOR LEADERSHIP

L.A. COUNTY SPENDS MORE THAN $233,000 A YEAR TO HOLD EACH
YOUTH IN JUVENILE LOCKUP

By Garrett Therolf | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1TmTpxe

March 7, 2016::A new county report on Los
Angeles County's Central Juvenile Hall depicts it as a leaderless operation
with "unacceptable" and "deplorable" conditions similar to
a "Third World country prison."

Some walls were covered in gang graffiti and filth that
no one made an effort to wash away. Morale among staffers was at "dungeon
lows from a workforce that claims to be victims."

And young detainees were sent into isolation for reasons
outside of department policy — in one case for exchanging food with another
detainee, the report alleges.

The report was written by Azael "Sal" Martinez,
a volunteer probation department monitor who spent time incarcerated at
juvenile hall as a teenager.

Martinez has since become a well-regarded Boyle Heights
community leader. Supervisor Hilda Solis appointed him to the 15-member
Probation Commission and asked him to report on the county's aging network of
three juvenile halls and 18 camps.

His assessment of Central Juvenile Hall in Boyle Heights
is the most withering by far.

Interim Probation Chief Cal Remington said he is
investigating the report's findings and will have a public response on how to
correct the problems soon. "Clearly there are issues that I need to deal
with," he said.

Supervisors voted in November to begin studying how to
replace the more than century-old facility with a modern infrastructure.

In the meantime, the 200 young people housed at Central
Juvenile Hall are sometimes placed in units with no running water except in
staff bathrooms, Martinez wrote.

"What can't be shaken is the stench emitting from
the unit and rooms due to urinals broken, backed up, not cleaned and
unsanitary," Martinez said. "When the minors use the urinals ... the
urine.. . splashed back on their shoes and pants."

"It appears that no one cares. Staff does not know
who is in charge and are quick to push the blame elsewhere," Martinez
wrote.

The findings come at a time when the department is under
increased scrutiny for the quality of its services. A county audit recently
found that the average cost of incarcerating a youth has soared to $233,600 a
year, significantly higher than other comparable jurisdictions across the
country. Experts are struggling to understand the reasons behind the high cost.

Martinez's findings challenge the department's assertion
that it is making progress in the halls.

As recently as last year, former Probation Chief Jerry
Powers celebrated when the county finally emerged from oversight by the U.S.
Department of Justice for mistreatment of youths.

But Martinez wrote in his report that staffers "are
complacent and feel that there will be no accountability and everything went
back to the way it has operated for years."

Cyn Yamashiro, a former Loyola law professor and member
of the Probation Commission, said Martinez's report is being taken seriously.

Yamashiro said he could not speak for the commission, but
he noted that Martinez's scrutiny of the department's use of solitary
confinement extended out of a broader concern among juvenile justice advocates
that the department has poorly documented when and how isolation is used.

In recent years, 19 states and the District of Columbia
have ended the practice of isolating detainees younger than 18. New York City
went one step further and banned solitary confinement for Rikers Island inmates
up to age 21.

Remington said he expects Los Angeles County to follow
suit within a year because of the public pressure to ban the practice.

"It is obvious that no child should ever be put in
solitary confinement for a minor infraction, and that the children in our custody
have a right to humane treatment and basic sanitary conditions. I am troubled
by the allegations in this report" Solis said in a statement.